Food Psych #224: Diabetes, Diet Culture, and Intuitive Eating for Blood-Sugar Stability with Lauren Newman

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Fellow anti-diet dietitian Lauren Newman joins us to discuss how to manage diabetes without weight loss and restriction, why the restrict-binge cycle and weight cycling are especially harmful to blood-sugar regulation, why carbohydrates are necessary for health, how to take the focus away from nutritional minutiae and numbers, and so much more. 

Lauren Newman, RD, LD is a registered dietitian in Houston, TX passionate about helping individuals with diabetes make peace with food and their bodies. Lauren practices from a Health At Every Size® and weight inclusive approach to help clients connect with their body’s needs, and learn to respond without rigidity, restriction, or shame. Find her online at LaurenNewmanRD.com.

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We Discuss:

  • The normalization of dieting in Lauren’s childhood

  • Her experiences with disordered eating growing up

  • Identifying as “the healthy one,” and why that can be problematic

  • How disordered eating influenced Lauren and Christy in their decision to become dietitians

  • Lauren’s observations of fatphobia in eating-disorder treatment

  • Her initial misconceptions of intuitive eating

  • How she overcame her skepticism around intuitive eating and Health At Every Size

  • Why she is passionate about helping people with diabetes

  • Why the diabetes field is so weight-centric

  • Integrating HAES and intuitive eating into diabetes care

  • The restrict-binge cycle, and how it can be particularly harmful for people with diabetes

  • Insulin resistance, and its role in diabetes

  • Why you can’t “cure” diabetes with a diet

  • Why carbohydrates are necessary for health, even in people with diabetes

  • Diabetes myths and misconceptions 

  • Healthism, and how it can be detrimental to diabetes management

  • How a healthcare professional’s privilege can affect the care that they provide

  • Helping people overcome food fears in diabetes management

  • How supposed “treatments” and “cures” can make people feel worse

  • How diet-culture messaging can hinder diabetes management

  • The effects of starvation (for any reason) on the body

  • Weight gain as a symptom, not a cause, of type 2 diabetes

  • Managing diabetes without weight loss and restriction

  • Why gentle nutrition is the last principle of intuitive eating, even with diabetes

  • Diabetes burnout, and its connection to disordered eating

  • The importance of flexibility in carbohydrate counting for insulin dosing

  • Taking the focus away from nutrition and movement in diabetes management

Resources Mentioned

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